Police arrested a Miami Beach taxicab driver named Reynoso Osias after uncovering a scheme that targeted people leaving local nightclubs. The 48 year old man allegedly worked with a partner to prey on drunk people looking for a ride home late at night. Detectives say the suspects forced victims into the taxi to take their personal devices and drain their bank accounts before letting them go.
Suspects used stolen devices to steal money from victims
The arrests come after an investigation that started in the middle of June. According to police, Osias and a female partner would wait outside busy entertainment spots to find people who had too much to drink. Once a victim got into the taxi, the suspects would take the person’s iPhone and use facial recognition features to unlock the screen.
From there, the suspects could access financial apps and make fake purchases or transfer cash. Because these modern smartphones are highly secure, criminals often try to force the owner to unlock the screen before running away with the hardware. The manufacturer, Apple, builds strong protections into its software, but those locks do not help if a thief uses the actual owner’s face to bypass them.
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In one scary situation, officers say the suspects lured a man into the cab and physically held him down to steal his cash and phone. This specific event led to a serious kidnapping charge for Osias. He is also facing seven other criminal charges, including robbery conspiracy and computer fraud.
While authorities have only spoken with two victims so far, the police department believes many more people were robbed the same way. The department expects to arrest the female accomplice soon and is asking anyone who went through a similar situation to come forward, hoping to fully shut down this late night trap.
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